Handcent issue - "back" button does not return me to pervious task

before on my Droid 4 with Gingerbread, when i was using handcent hitting the back button soft key would eventually take me back to the previous task.
For example say i was using the browser. I then got a text message, so i would pull down the notification screen and click the handcent icon.
It would take me to the text conversation and after I reply or delete the message or whatever, i would hit the "back" capacitive key at the bottom of the phone, and it would take me back to the inbox, then hit back more time and it would return me to the browser screen - exactly where i was before.
it didnt matter what app i was running at the time of the notificaction, hitting back would always correctly return me to the previous task.

now after the ICS update, this doesnt work.
if im using an app and access Handcent via the pull-down notification screen, when im done reading the text and hit "back", it just takes me to the inbox, and then to the previous message, then back to the inbox, then to another random message and so on in a vicious never ending cycle. it never returns me to the previous task.

Extremely annoying that in order to continue my previous task i have to hit the home screen key, then the apps icon, then scroll through my list of apps until i find the right one, then finally resume my task. Is there a fix for this somewhere in the Handcent settings that I havent found, or is Handcent just slowly becoming obsolete?

in a related question, is there a way to quickly access running apps from the home screens in ICS?
For example can i long click on something to show me which apps I have open so that I can quickly switch between them without returning to the home screen and then flipping through multiple screens?

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